Space Robots | "The shape of love​"

"Space Robots, The Shape of Love", is a fast paced, coordination puzzle game developed in Unreal Engine 4, at the 2019 Indie Galactic Space Jam, in Orlando Florida.Over the course of 2 days, developers pitch space inspired game concepts, form teams, and produce a playable game for all to enjoy.

the night before : Game Pitches

Space Robots started off as a napkin concept just hours before the event began. My best friend (an amazing technical designer, Michael Carter) and I were hanging out at the local happy hour, chit-chatting about different space topics, when the concept of Space Robots, popped in to our heads. In no time flat, and with three drink napkins in hand, we headed over to the jam site ready to make the pitch!

The Night Before : High Concept

"It can be lonely way up there in outer space, but now's your chance to make the ultimate connection! Navigate the firewalls of love by manipulating the shape of your love vessel through those firewalls, to reach your lover's CPU: the heart."

THE NIGHT BEFORE : Forming Teams

After game pitches, all the event goers break off and form teams. Anyone is free to join up with their favorite pitch.

Look how how many developers came to the jam!

Unreal Engine is not scary!

I have been to countless game jams and so many attendees have never used UE4 before.

To me, game jams are for learning, with a large percentage of jam goers just starting out. They're afraid of being thought of as not good enough, or being treated differently for asking questions.

I understand why Unreal seems scary (we've all been there before), but it is such a powerful tool and more than an appropriate engine to use in game jams.

I'm very keen on helping new developers when I attend game jams and given Michael and I were not going to use another engine, we came totally prepared to teach anyone who was willing to learn.

As expected, we turned off most jam goers with our engine choice, but what we didn't expect was that, offering to teach was that little dose of bravery that people needed to take the plunge. We ended up will a fairly sizable team comprised of devs who had never used UE4 before.

THE NIGHT BEFORE : Meet the team!

days 1 : Pre-production

The Strategy

Given that we would be teaching the team UE4 as we went, Michael and I split into department leads. He'd lead the programmers and systems integrations as well as set up source control for us to use, and I would lead the artists and manage the art pipeline. I was also adamant about taking on production management tasks to keep us all organized and on the same page.

source control

What's better than Unreal Engine? Unreal Engine with Perforce source control! Perforce is a great centralized source control and super powerful in fast development environments. It was more than worth the time it took to get it working for everyone, and teach them how to use the P4V client. Once we got going, there wasn't a single merge conflict, nor did anyone accidentally overwrite someone elses work!

Creating Sprint Tasks

While we were brain storming and coming up with our game plan, I introduced everyone to the concept of SCRUM. We would be doing routine stand-ups in where I encouraged everyone to be concise and candid with their up dates. Routine SCRUM really kept us organized and on track while also updating the design to give us more time to teach as needed.

DAYS 1 - 2 : PRODUCTION

Once the initial pre-production set up was completed, we quickly fell into a great production cycle. Rather than break down the step-by-step process, I want to list out all the features that made it in to the final build. (Remember this was made in 2 days, with teammates who were learning about UE4 for the first time!)

GAME WRAP-UP : Game systems and Mechanics | User Interfaces

Watch a full play-through of Space Robots: The Shape of Love

Here's what the technical team produced :

Seamless Camera transition system (start, in game, to end)

Scoring system in C++ | Blueprints

Custom player controller in C++ (Controller and keyboard support)

Puzzle spawn system in Blueprints

Collisions check shape system in Blueprints

Sound effects and music

UX system showcasing the correct constellation title, each having a fade effect

Conclusion

Even though this jam game was just one of many I've made over the years, this experience is at the top of my list because of the logistics of our team. Everybody was excited to be learning Unreal, and I was excited to be teaching it.Space Robots ended up being one of the most polished, finished projects even when compared to the large, pre-formed teams that participated.

It was an absolute treat to conduct a smooth production where everyone was challenged but comfortable. Everybody walked away proud of their work and the sheer amount of quality content we were able to have by the end. It may have been a small game jam game, but I just had to give it a full page on my portfolio!